This research article published by Modern Education and Computer Science Press, 2019
The rapid population growth in Dar Es Salaam
has prompted the demand of effective transport system in
the city. This tremendous rise of population led to serious
road traffic congestions, which brings a number of
challenges into the city and other growing urban areas.
City authorities attempted various solutions to control the
traffic congestions such as construction of new roads,
expansion of existing roads, installation of traffic lights
and other transportation infrastructures such as reestablishment of commuter train to operate within the city
but they couldn’t effectively relieve the problem.
Eventually, the Government of Tanzania (GoT) supported
the city’s effort by establishing the organ called Dar Es
Salaam Rapid Transit (DART) to supervise the
implementation and operation of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
system. The BRT system provided direct benefits to
passengers such as minimal travel time, improved
reliability as compared to other public transport
commonly known as daladala, and reduced accident as
BRT buses travel in their dedicated lanes. Despite these
benefits there still persist transportation challenges with
the BRT, where passengers still suffer from waiting on
very long queue during ticket booking, shortage of smart
cards, they are unable to check balance direct from their
mobile phones, as well as they fail to top-up onto their
card’s balance using their smart phones. This paper
presents a software technology approach that would help
passengers to check balance, send request specifying
station to board a bus and check the bus arrival time at
any station.